<p>Hello, everyone!</p>
<p>I am an undergrad at the University of Texas at San Antonio planning to apply to Rice for fall 2011 as a transfer student and would like your opinion on my chances of making it there.</p>
<p>I moved to the States in Dec. 2008 and joined a public high school in Sugar Land,TX in Jan. 2009 as a junior. All my credits from Pakistan (my home country) transferred as foreign credits meaning I couldn't get honors/AP credits for anything. Furthermore, at least 60% of our GPA is determined by our freshman and sophomore years which for me were full of foreign credits. Consequently, I got stuck at 4.9 (weighted GPA). I worked really hard in the three semesters that I had and went from being ranked 174 (out of 515) to 38 by the time of graduation. However, when I was applying to colleges I had only a semester worth of grades to show plus my extracurricular profile wasn't very impressive either accounting to the fact that I couldn't join any of them when I came in the middle of the year in my junior year. As a result I ended up at UTSA under the CAP program. This particular program guarantees automatic transfer to University of Texas at Austin on completion of certain requirements that I am pretty sure of meeting.</p>
<p>Although UT, Austin is a pretty reputable school itself, I would like to transfer to Rice for a couple of reasons that are as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Neither UT nor UTSA has the major I want, which is Cognitive Sciences. On the other hand not only does Rice have a very impressive program for Cognitive Sciences but it also has way better research facilities available.</p></li>
<li><p>I am the elder one of the two siblings and next year my younger sister is planning to move out of state for college. My parents are highly dependent on me since we are relatively new immigrants and so I have to take care of a lot of things including bills and such. If I get admitted to Rice, I will only be 45 minutes away from home which is a lot more convenient than 3 and a half hours away (which is true for both Austin and San Antonio). Plus I can't bring a car here to UTSA since the area is not safe and break ins are everyday nuances.</p></li>
<li><p>Classes at UT, Austin and UTSA are very big compared to Rice and I have always cherished the relationships I have had with my professors. At Rice I am not likely to be one of the 400 students in the class whose name the Professor does not care to know.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Let me also provide some facts and figures too:</p>
<p><code>Immigration status: permanent resident.
</code>Completed my University of Cambridge O'level examinations in 10 subjects with 95% and higher in all of them.
<code>SAT: Math:760, Critical Reading:640, Writing:660. Composite:2060.
</code>Graduating Rank:38/515 and GPA:5.2/3.98 (weighted/unweighted)
<code>National AP Scholar: took 9 APs. Got six 5s and three 4s.
</code>Member of the UTSA Honors College
<code>Participated in Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honors Society), English Honors Society, Academic Decathlon (won two silvers at Regionals), Model UN and Big Brother/Sister program in high school.
</code>Currently a member of the Rotaract Club, Tri-beta Society (Honors Biology Society) and Pre-med society.
<code>Involved in community service through various institutions.
</code>Past tutoring experience and hoping to get another tutoring job this semester.
<code>Current Courses: Honors Biosciences. Honors US History. Honors Art and Architecture. Upper division Economics and Calculus III.
</code>Midterm results: straight As.
<code>Spring Courses: Honors Chemistry, Bio lab, Chem lab, Phy labs I and II, Arabic and Statistics.
</code>Applied to Rice as a high school student and got waitlisted.</p>
<p>I apologize for the long read but I really felt the need to explain my situation in detail. Please feel free to offer your opinions about my chances of making it to Rice and advices/tips of improving them. Any information about the transfer application process apart from common knowledge will be a great asset too.</p>
<p>Sincerely Grateful.</p>